Over the weekend just past I conducted a poll of sorts, the key question, what was your first 4WD? While it was not quite as scientifically planned and plotted as some of you would, I’m sure, expect, I got enough answers (not to mention laughs) to complete this column.
For instance, when three of the seven people I asked said their first 4WD was a Land Rover I smelled a rat! And indeed, when two of the three caved as I probed into the hows and whys, it turned out the buggers had actually been ‘given’ a hand-me-down Landie between the age of 12 and 15 so that they could learn about driving off-road (on the family farm) not to mention how to do basic maintenance.
Which is all very well but when it was time to plunk down their own hard-earned cash neither went near a vintage Landy. One bought the first of what is now a number of Suzuki SJ ‘Jimnys’, the other what he happily describes as his ‘dirty Saf’ (a now much-modified SWB NIssan Safari).
That’s two of the seven. For the other five the desire to go off-road was actually a secondary consideration when they decided it was time to buy a dedicated 4WD. Three of the five needed something to tow a race car, with two plumbing for 80 Series Toyota Land Cruisers, the other a late-ish model Land Rover Defender.
It took a lot of digging to get to the truth here, but the other two (don’t laugh!) finally admitted rather sheepishly that they bought theirs (one a late model Mitsubishi Pajero, the other another 80 Series Toyota Land Cruiser) for their wives to do the school run in!
As most of us know, though, you don’t need to own a dedicated, low-range-equipped 4WD long before the itch to ‘see what she’ll do’ gets a good scratching, and in each case above we now have seven keen, competent off-roaders aged between 20 and (‘how old are you now Rog? That’s right you must be…) 66.
All now have ‘trucks’ which see regular use off the road as well as on it, though only one has reached ‘bragging rights’ status in competition. The rest are just happy pootling around – up and down Muriwai Beach and doing the odd charity tagalong – and all power to them because as each discovered independently, a whole new world of wonder awaits when you buy your first 4WD.
To read the full story in the March 2019 issue of NZ4WD go to Zinio.com (February 18) or purchase your own hard copy at the Adrenalin store
